Did Flawed Science and Litigation Help Bring Down the World Trade Center?

Transcription

1 Did Flawed Science and Litigation Help Bring Down e World Trade Center? Andrew Schlafly, Esq. On September 11, 2001, I was scheduled to argue a case in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, which had a clear view of e World Trade Center (WTC). That hearing, like everying else in e New York City (NYC) area, was canceled in e wake of e fateful news. At 8:45 a.m. local time, a hijacked 767 commercial jet airplane rammed into One World Trade Center, e Nor Tower, fully loaded wi fuel for a transcontinental flight. Eighteen minutes after e initial impact, a second jet crashed into Two World Trade Center, e Sou Tower. My immediate reaction was at e attack occurred too early for e office building to be completely filled wi workers. Unlike most places, Manhattan is not in full swing until :0 a.m. local time. NYC workers are late risers and long commuters. Had e terrorists struck an hour later, e loss of life would have been far greater. The initial crash into e WTC killed relatively few people. The planes were not filled wi passengers, and e floors were not filled wi workers. A few workers on e impacted floors even survived. It was e premature collapse of e towers at caused e ousands of casualties. The Sou Tower, which had been hit second, was e first to collapse. It fell at 10:05 a.m., a mere 62 minutes after being struck by e jetliner. The Nor Tower collapsed at 10:2 a.m., 104 minutes after being hit. Seven World Trade Center, an adjacent 48- story building, totally collapsed around 5:20 p.m. alough not struck by an airplane nor doused in jet fuel. The WTC was expressly designed to wistand e impact of a large commercial jetliner having weight and fuel capacity comparable to e 767. Every architect of skyscrapers is familiar wi e collision of e B-25 bomber into e 7 floor of e Empire State Building in heavy fog in 145. That crash killed 14 people, but caused only $1 million in damage. The structure of e building easily survived e impact and e resultant fire. Given e design parameters and e experience wi e Empire State Building, why did e WTC collapse so quickly on September 11? Why did e Nor Tower remain standing 68 percent longer after impact an e Sou Tower did? And still more curiously, why did Building 7 collapse? As e Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has officially admitted, The collapse of e towers astonished most 1 observers, including knowledgeable structural engineers. I have to say e collapse of buildings is size is a little bit surprising, declared James Milke, associate professor of e University of Maryland s department of fire protection engineering. Milke contrasted e WTC collapse to skyscrapers at survived long-burning fires in Philadelphia (a 1-hour inferno in e Meridian Bank Building in 11) and in Los Angeles (a.5- hour blaze in e First Interstate Bank in 188). Neier of ose buildings even approached collapsing, despite e inability of 2 firefighters to control e blazes for prolonged periods. Nearly two years after e WTC massacre, e families of e victims of e attack still lack honest answers. The $16-million government-funded investigation has provided noing meaningful in explanation. Instead, politics and money have distorted e process. We are not constrained by ese factors here. History The World Trade Center was unique, but not by virtue of its height. Its singularity was at it was built and owned by government for private, commercial purposes. A brief review of e political and economic history of e WTC sheds light on its fatal safety flaw. In e early 160s, David Rockefeller was e preeminent real estate developer in NYC, and his broer Nelson was e governor of New York. David Rockefeller had just completed e 60-story Chase Manhattan Bank Tower in lower Manhattan in 160, e first new skyscraper ere in a generation. He needed more development to energize e neighborhood, and cleverly prodded e Port Auority of New York and New Jersey to study a proposal for a $250-million trade center ere. The Port Auority is a very powerful government entity, established in 121, which operates e bridges, tunnels, and airports around NYC. In some respects it has more power and auority an NYC itself. It can seize property, dictate travel, and secure credit. This is not an entity at ever should have built commercial towers for private use. The Port Auority did not even have to comply wi NYC building codes. When e trade center was built, e Port Auority as an interstate agency was not bound by New York City building codes, or any oer for at matter. In 16, e agency instructed engineers and architects to comply wi e local building code, but it was not until 0 years later at an agreement was established to allow fire and oer inspections. Before e arrival of e Rockefellers, e Port Auority itself was opposed to e idea of a WTC. Its Chairman Howard Cullman declared at e proposed building was primarily an extensive real estate operation and us inappropriate for e selfperpetuating public benefit corporation of e PortAuority. Once Nelson Rockefeller became governor of New York, he installed four loyalists on e board of e Port Auority, and its view changed. Despite vociferous objections by small businessmen in e area, e Port Auority endorsed e project. The New York Times editorial page insisted at no project has ever been more promising for New York. The Washington Post supported it from afar. Gov. Nelson Rockefeller signed enabling legislation on March 27, 162. Detractors said e twin towers should be named Nelson and David. The construction was everying one might expect from a government project. It was more expensive and took longer to build an a private counterpart. The WTC was also less attractive, less efficient, and less safe an privately built structures. The supporters of e WTC said its cost would be $50 million, but by completion more an a decade later its actual costs were at least double at. It lost money rough e 170s and probably never recouped e value of its investment and expenses. It took e dot-com boom of e 10s, not world trade, to push occupancy to high levels. Though sold to e public as government-promoted export-import, only 5 percent of e WTC leases were held by trade service and export-import tenants. The original plan for a broerhood of shipping concerns to do business out of one building failed because ese competitive shippers did not want to share e same building. Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons Volume 8 Number Fall 200 8

2 In contrast, e Sears Tower cost only about $150 million roughly one-fif e cost of e WTC, even ough built around e same time. The WTC took nearly a decade to be completed; e Sears Tower, only ree years. In 1, a terrorist detonated a bomb at e WTC. Smoke filled e building and its vulnerability to fire or collapse was exposed. Government spent an outrageous $525 million to repair e damage, more an e inflation-adjusted total cost of building e Sears Tower. No asbestos fire-proofing was added to e WTC after e 1 attack, despite its demonstrated vulnerability. Why do government buildings often exceed reasonable costs? Ray Monti, a construction manager on e WTC project, explained: There s a natural tendency in all government projects to want to convince oers to auorize you to proceed. One puts a favorable interpretation on e facts. He en explained at e tendency is e opposite once e project gets started. Once I m started, what 4 are you going to do to me? Stop e building in e middle? Of course not at would be a disaster for e politicians in charge. The original plans for e WTC called for 70 stories, which would have been more in line wi its surroundings. But e quest for media attention drove its height to record-breaking levels. Is at two buildings wi fifty-five stories each? Nelson Rockefeller once asked e architect. Oh no, he replied. One-hundred-ten stories apiece! My God! Nelson gushed. These towers will make David s building [e Chase Manhattan Bank Tower] look like an out-house! The workmanship on e WTC was superb Mohawk Indians traveled down from Canada each week to work at e enormous heights required, but e design plainly was not. Architectural critics unanimously panned e WTC, which committed e architectural sin of ignoring its surroundings. The adjacent skyscrapers looked Lilliputian in comparison. Harper s magazine called it The World s Tallest Fiasco. The American Institute of Architects said at e public agency at built [e WTC] ran amok wi bo money and aesetics. Paul Goldberger, e prominent architectural critic for The New York Times, called e WTC so utterly banal as to be unwory of 5 e headquarters of a bank in Omaha. The WTC used a government one-size-fits-all approach. For example, ere were originally no light switches in e offices. The lights would typically remain on unless shut off in unison. The floors were identical to each oer. The towers were little more an a single shaft, straight up for 110 stories. It was a steel skyscraper version of government buildings in Washington, D.C. Its main flaw, however, was its lack of safety. The decision to use mostly steel in e WTC made it vulnerable to fires. Concrete, which dominates e Empire State Building, wistands fire far better an steel does, and experts are confident at e Empire State Building would not have collapsed after a September 11- type of attack. Nor would e Sears Tower, which uses nine structurally separate tubes raer an e solitary tube used by eachwtc tower. The original design and construction of e WTC included fireproofing of e steel. The longstanding industry standard for steel skyscrapers was to use spray-on asbestos. Oerwise, unprotected steel will warp, melt, sag, and ultimately collapse when heated to normal fire temperatures of 1,100 to 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit. Mixed wi water and sprayed onto e steel beams as well as e floors and ceilings, asbestos adds resilience and insulation against fire to e structure. The spray contractor, Mario and DiBono, had taken one additional level of precaution. In e first and last time for a NYC building, e contractor guarded against e scattering of dried asbestos. The contractor even planned elaborate procedures for cleanup and disposal of e asbestos. Canvas was used to seal off e spraying of e asbestos from bo interior and exterior space. The WTC was constructed between 168 and 172, beginning wi e Nor Tower. At least forty stories of e Nor Tower received e permanent fireproofing protection of e sprayed mixture of asbestos and cement. But mid-construction, hysteria 6 about asbestos broke loose. At e Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in uptown NYC, Dr. Irving J. Selikoff, director of e environmental sciences laboratory, declared at high concentrations of asbestos cause cancer. High concentrations of many useful substances cause, or at least facilitate, cancer. Sunlight is an example. We do not prohibit items simply because ey may be associated wi cancer in high doses. Even useless substances like cigarettes are not banned from e market simply because ey cause cancer. Moreover, Dr. Selikoff failed to adjust for tobacco use in his study. Tobacco is known to cause lung cancer, more frequently an asbestos does. It was a fatal defect not to separate out e smokers from e non-smokers in e study. Only later did Dr. Selikoff publish a study showing at e lung cancer risk from asbestos exposure is highly dependent on smoking habits, wi extremely 7 few asbestos lung cancer cases found in non-smokers. Environmental regulators, however, are anxious to assert eir power immediately, regardless of e facts. David Kessler of e Food and Drug Administration (FDA), for example, became dictator-for-a-day by temporarily banning all breast implants, even ough countless studies showed no causation of cancer. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seized upon Dr. Selikoff s asbestos work and issued new regulations sharply restricting use of asbestos. In 171, NYC banned e use of asbestos 8 in spray fireproofing. But e Port Auority simply continued e project wiout e asbestos protection. The Sou Tower erefore received little to no asbestos. Building 7, completed in 187, received no asbestos protection against fire. The inventor of e asbestos spray being used in e Nor Tower, Herbert Levine, was despondent. If a fire breaks out above e 64 floor [of e Nor Tower], at building will fall down, Levine predicted. The insulation was designed to protect e building from collapse for four hours, which would have saved many hundreds or ousands of trapped occupants. This resultant fire hazard was unnecessary. As Harvard physics professor emeritus Professor Richard Wilson observed, No adverse heal effect has ever been attributed to e Levine process. One week after e WTC collapsed, Brooklyn College environmental scientist Arur Langer, who once supported Dr. Selikoff s claims, stated: In retrospect, considering e recent events... I wonder if e performance characteristics of e 10 replacement material were as good. Dr. Selikoff s successor at Mount Sinai, Dr. Philip Landrigan, conceded at e quality of non-asbestos insulation is a legitimate question. Testing e WTC debris for toxins, e Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found remarkably little asbestos and hence little protection against fire. Twenty-six of 2 bulk samples had less an 1 percent asbestos. The CDC en tested samples taken from e pivotal I-beams emselves. One was completely negative for asbestos, and e oer two had less an 1 percent asbestos. The air samples had less an 0.1 fiber per cubic 11 centimeter, e low federal reshold. The WTC was ereby distinctive in is final respect. As confirmed by e National Council of Structural Engineers Association, e WTC was e first steel structure to use nonasbestos fireproofing. Flawed Science Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral fiber. We are all inhaling it now. Urban air has asbestos fiber levels around fibers per cubic centimeter of air (f/cm ). San Francisco and many cities are built on rocks at naturally contain asbestos. 0 Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons Volume 8 Number Fall 200

3 Asbestos has extraordinary resistance to heat, mechanical stress, and water. It is flexible and has low electrical conductivity. It is also resistant to acids and alkalies, making it useful in guarding against corrosion. It is composed of silicon, e building block of integrated circuits, and oxygen, hydrogen, and various metals. No oer material can rival its usefulness in buildings. Its resistance to fire and stress made it a popular construction material from e 10s until e 170s. The federal Occupational Safety and Heal Administration (OSHA) set a permissible exposure limit of 10 fibers per cubic centimeter of air (10 f/cm ) in e 170s, but because of litigation and pressure at exposure level has been reduced to a current level of 0.1 f/cm. The lower e official limit is, e more lucrative e asbestos litigation is for plaintiffs. Employees who are exposed for more an irty days above 0.1 f/cm each year are considered to be asbestos workers and require medical examinations. Asbestosis is e most common disease resultant from heavy exposure to asbestos. Dry airborne asbestos fibers in concentrated doses have also been correlated wi mesoelioma, predominantly in smokers. The asbestos at issue in e WTC fireproofing, however, was in a wet slurry form unlikely to generate significant levels of airborne asbestos for occupants. Indeed, e spray-on asbestos remained in roughly half of e Nor Tower until September 11. The CDC studied e number of deas from asbestosis and mesoelioma in New Hampshire over a 20-year period from rough 18. Only 1 died from mesoelioma, and from asbestosis. In sum, only about one person in New Hampshire died per year from ese asbestos-related diseases. Moreover, e average age at dea was not much different from e United States average. In fact, ose wi asbestosis lived longer an expected from e averageamerican life expectancy. In 18, e prestigious New England Journal of Medicine reported no increased risk of dea from cancer among women because of prolonged exposure to asbestos. Based on a orough study of mines and mills at have e world s greatest concentration of asbestos, e researchers concluded: The [Environmental Protection Agency] model overestimated e risk 1 of asbestos-induced lung cancer by at least a factor of 10. Harvard University s Energy and Environmental Policy Center ranks asbestos as having a very low comparative risk of premature dea, less important an being struck by lightning (see Table 1). Table 1. Proportion of Premature Deas Caused by Various Risk Factors 12 Smoking...21.% Motor vehicles...1.6% Frequent flying on airlines % Coal mining accidents % Indoor radon...0.4% Lightning % Asbestos in school buildings % The EPA not only exaggerated e effect of asbestos; it also ignored its benefits in effectively banning it from buildings in e170s. Meanwhile, smoking plainly does cause lung cancer, and hundreds of ousands of smokers die each year from it. Had e law recognized and applied e doctrine of intervening cause, en e frenzy over asbestos may never have occurred. But e courts opened eir gates to attorneys claiming at smokers contracted eir lung disease from exposure to asbestos. The issue was presented to juries, beginning as early as e 160s, and enormous verdicts began rolling in. No government-funded scientist is willing to defend asbestos. This enables ose profiting from asbestos litigation to fan public fear to astounding levels. Litigation The direct economic cost of e September 11 attack is estimated to be between $40 and $60 billion. This enormous figure is about ten times e insured value of e buildings emselves. As large as e September costs are, however, ey pale in comparison to e estimated costs of asbestos litigation. The Economist magazine put e cost of asbestos litigation at $ billion. That is probably a low estimate. Already more an 500,000 individuals have sued for exposure to asbestos, wi each claim typically naming twenty defendants. Some insurance reports estimate at one million people will ultimately file claims and at e costs could rise as 16 high as $275 billion. The Supreme Court has repeatedly implored Congress to save e courts from having to handle asbestos lawsuits. But e usual victims of is litigation are engineering companies at lack political muscle and are no match for e clout of e trial lawyers. America s top asbestos producer, Johns Manville, was forced into bankruptcy in 182. By 12, Lloyds of London was averaging nearing $ billion a year in losses, mostly related to asbestos claims. Asbestos litigation has driven at least 60 companies into 17 bankruptcy since 2000, including Belehem Steel. Judgments are often imposed wi little regard for proof of wrongdoing or causation. Encouraged by porous legal standards, asbestos attorneys have filed claims for more an 1.4 million persons, against more an 1,400 companies. More an 0,000 new claims were filed just last year. Only 6 percent of ose claimants actually 18 suffered from an asbestos-related illness. In 2000, e four major companies sent into bankruptcy by asbestos litigation were Armstrong World Industries (construction products), Babcock & Wilcox (boilers), Burns and Roe (engineering and construction), and Pittsburgh Corning (glass insulation). In 2001, asbestos litigation casualties included e chemical and materials giant W.R. Grace (which did not even make asbestos), e prominent construction materials company G.A.F., e gypsum wallboard maker USG, and e auto-parts maker Federal-Mogul. Fortune 500 victims of e asbestos litigation monster can witness sudden drops in eir stock prices. Hit wi a Texas-sized verdict in December 2001, Halliburton stock abruptly dropped 4 percent. In February 2002, a Manhattan jury awarded $5 million to e estate of a deceased auto mechanic who allegedly died from exposure to asbestos in brake linings. That decision jeopardizes e entire auto industry; full-page ads for auto mechanics wi lung cancer now run in New York newspapers. The performance behavior of asbestos in brakes is steady and predictable. Asbestos brakes wear out very slowly, ereby alerting drivers when it becomes necessary to replace em. But e same cannot be said for e asbestos substitutes, which can degrade quickly based on heat and oer climatic conditions. Cars and trucks on our highways today are using inadequate substitutes for asbestos in eir brakes, anks to 20,000 lawsuits against e big ree auto makers over past asbestos use. By e end of 2001, more an,500 lawsuits were being filed each mon against Ford, General Motors, and DaimlerChrysler, based on junk science and 1 past use of asbestos. In March 2002, a West Virginia jury ordered DuPont to pay $6.4 million to a bank officer who died of mesoelioma. How could a bank officer have been exposed to asbestos? The banker was allegedly injured by fibers at might have attached to e cloing of his faer who worked wi asbestos at DuPont. Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons Volume 8 Number Fall 200 1

4 Some of e cases involve heavy, lifelong smokers who claim ey have asbestosis, an asbestos-related disease. Plaintiffs and defendants bring in medical experts who testify to contrary diagnoses, and e jury is left to decide, often against e corporate defendants. Senior United States District Court Judge Charles R. Weiner observed: Today, given e volume of claims and e disappearance of any effective injury requirement, defendants are 20 paying ose who are not really injured. In February 2002, 2,645 plaintiffs sued asbestos attorneys, arguing at is case arises from corruption wiin e asbestos personal injury bar. Reports are at e majority of asbestos settlements enrich e attorneys, raer an going to e allegedly harmed individuals. On e Asbestos Network website, ere is e following statement: In e workplace, ere is no safe level of 21 exposure. This falsehood is seized upon by e asbestos bar to promote e mistaken view at anyone exposed to asbestos in any way should be able to sue for damages. The runaway litigation has distorted e science. The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly urged Congress to take action in curbing abusive litigation, but e pleas have gone 22 unheeded. This past spring, e Court itself considered a West Virginia award of millions of dollars to a few workers wiout evidence of physical or independently corroborated emotional harm from exposure to asbestos, and wiout apportioning damages based on relative culpability. Imagine at millions of dollars in damages wiout proven harm. Despite reviewing e case, e High Court ultimately affirmed e decision in favor of 2 e plaintiffs. The asbestos panic even became a political scandal for Vice President Dick Cheney. He orchestrated a merger by his company, Halliburton, wi a company vulnerable to asbestos claims, Dresser Industries. The rampant asbestos lawsuits subsequently weakened Halliburton s stock after e acquisition. Piling fiction upon fiction, attorneys later argued at Cheney should have done due diligence and learned at e runaway asbestos litigation would infect and 24 substantially weaken Halliburton. All is for a substance at, in e words of Professor R.S. Mitchell of e University of Colorado School of Medicine, does not even initiate cancer: Asbestos is regarded as a promoter, not an initiator, of lung cancer. 25 Silence by e Scientific Community Tens of millions of dollars in government money are being spent on investigations of e WTC collapse. Paid for by government, ese studies are designed to exonerate government. Aresearcher would risk his career and future funding by asserting at government negligence or malfeasance contributed to e WTC collapse. Also, do not expect e government to release its data in connection wi e WTC. When e conclusions of e government studies are announced, it is unlikely at e underlying data will be released for scrutiny. Silence by academic scientists about junk science is a growing problem. On July 1, 2002, The Christian Science Monitor reported on some high-profile examples of scientific fraud. The article noted at some scientists say publicized cases of scientific misconduct are only e tip of e iceberg. Surveys have indicated at scientists often are aware of misconduct in eir labs but fail to report it. Research also shows at small but significant numbers of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows would be willing to fudge or ignore data if it helped em land research grants or publish a paper. Asbestos hysteria falls in at category. There is enormous financial and political motivation behind perpetuating e exaggerated fears. Noing but silence is on e oer side. Many government-funded scientists claimed in e afterma of September 11 at no structure could have survived such an attack. That is clearly false. Steel reinforced by concrete, as used by e Empire State Building, would have almost certainly survived. Steel protected by asbestos would have survived as a function of how much asbestos was used. This is demonstrated by e ability of e partially asbestos-protected Nor Tower to stand 68 percent longer after impact an e Sou Tower. Moreover, WTC buildings 4, 5, and 6 all built in e 170s did not collapse on September 11. Building 7, built in e 180s, which was a full block away, did collapse from e heat. Oer apologists pretend it does not matter at e building collapsed, because supposedly e persons trapped above e impact could not have escaped regardless. But at is also plainly false. Brian Clark was in his office on e 84 floor of e Sou Tower when it was struck by e jet, and he survived by escaping down an available staircase. His story is available online at 26 PBS swebsite. The plane struck his building 4-6 stories below him, at about e floors. He described many oers around him who ended up dying in e collapse of e building. In addition to Brian Clark, ere were at least 15 oers who did survive despite being in e top floors of e Sou Tower. An entire stairway to e higher floors provided a passageway for occupants to escape long after impact. But e quick collapse of e building in a mere 62 minutes prevented many from surviving. Then ere are ose who claim at simply because asbestos does facilitate lung cancer for some individuals, particularly smokers wi high exposure to asbestos fibers, it must be banned regardless of e consequences for building fires. This is e most irresponsible position of all. The simple fact is at no one at e EPA or anyone else has accurately studied e costs of banningasbestos. As to e collapse of e WTC, studies are slowly migrating to e obvious lack of fireproofing. The building s leaseholder, Larry Silverstein, has a financial interest in demonstrating at e collapse was a separate and distinct event from e attack, in order to collect insurance for two incidents of loss raer an merely one. His study, as well as anoer recent study, found at e fireproofing was indeed inadequate. Sally Regenhard s son was among e 4 firefighters killed. In response to e suggestion in an interim report released in May 200 by e National Institute of Standards at e WTC fireproofing may have been inadequate, Ms. Regenhard said she was horrified to know we could build such a fragile building wi a minimum amount of fire protection. However, e Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) released a study at gave only scant and unsatisfying 28 attention to e asbestos fireproofing issue. This deficiency in analysis requires remedy. Conclusion The United States has one of e highest fire dea rates in e industrialized world. In 2001, ere were 6,16 civilian fire deas (including 2,451 in e September 11 attack) and 21,100 civilian fire injuries (including 800 attributed to e September 11 attack). In a typical year, 100 firefighters are killed from duty-related incidents, often from premature collapses of buildings. Fires kill more Americans an all oer natural disasters combined. Direct property loss due to fires is estimated at $10 billion for 2001, not 2 including e September 11 attack losses. The tragic reality is at all buildings constructed after e asbestos ban are vulnerable to premature collapse. Many modern skyscrapers are probably firetraps because of is. A highly publicized recent example was e inferno at e West Warwick, Rhode Island, nightclub on February 20, 200, which 2 Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons Volume 8 Number Fall 200

5 killed 100 persons. Reports have traced e cause of e rapidly spreading fire to $575 wor of inflammable soundproofing 0 material used wiin e facility. Occupants had at most only a few minutes to escape. Apparently inadequate fireproofing caused oer high-profile tragedies. The explosion of e Challenger in 186 was ultimately traced to O-rings at could not wistand temperature change, as colorfully demonstrated by Dr. Richard Feynman at a Senate committee hearing. Less well-known, however, is at environmentalist pressure forced e removal of asbestos from sealants and caused e use of e faulty O-rings in e first place. More recently, e failure of insulation on e Columbia space shuttle resulted in its tragic burning and e loss of life of all its crew members on February 1, 200. Asbestos insulation would surely have been superior at resisting e heat. The litigation-fed hysteria over asbestos has led to e fiction at adequate substitutes exist. But ere is no known equivalent for e naturally occurring asbestos. Asbestos is by far e best defense against fire. There is no substitute. No oer material even approaches e streng and resistance of asbestos. Under Rhode Island fire codes applicable to e nightclub at tragically burned, flamespread rating is regulated for materials. By statutory definition, e flamespread rating of an asbestos cement board is 1 zero (0), while at of red oak lumber is 100. Ironically, asbestos is so versatile at it has even been used for soundproofing e need 2 so poorly met by e inflammable substitute in e nightclub. While ere may be risks associated wi certain forms of asbestos, ese are far less an e risks of many substances at are still widely used or ingested despite lack of any compensatory benefits, such as cigarettes. Asbestos should not have been banned from e WTC, and should not be banned from oer buildings or products eier. Currently, routine fires result in building collapse, and asbestos would greatly reduce e number of deas. Aside from e enormous economic losses, Americans, particularly New Yorkers, have paid a heavy price in lost lives for e unjustified pseudoscientific demands to ban asbestos, especially on September 11. We should never again permit such bad science to interfere wi safety and to increase tragedy. Andrew Schlafly, Esq., is General Counsel for e Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. Some of is material was previously presented at e 20 annual meeting of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness in Colorado Springs, Colo., July 27, Mr. Schlafly has no financial interest in e outcome of asbestos litigation. REFERENCES 1 Federal Emergency Management Agency. Executive summary. In: World Trade Center Building Performance Study. Available at: Accessed June 4, Alexander D. Questions on tower construction: could buildings have been saved? Chicago Tribune, Sept. 15, Available at: Accessed June 4, 200. Kugler S. WTC fireproofing not tested to hold up to code, panel says. Associated Press, May 8, Gillespie AK. Twin Towers: The Life of New York City s World Trade Center. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press; 1. 5 Goldberger P. On e Rise: Architecture and Design in a Postmodern Age. New York, N.Y.: Times Books; Kubes KG. Note: United We Stand : Managing choice-of-law problems in September-11-based toxic torts rough federal substantive mass-tort law. Ind. L.J. 2002;77(fall):825, Selikoff, IJ et al. Mortality effects of cigarette smoking among amosite asbestos factory workers. J Natl Cancer Inst 180;65: Milloy S. Asbestos could have saved WTC lives. Fox News, September 14, Available at: Accessed June 4, 200. Miller S. A cautionary tale: Al Qaeda s unseen ally: environmental extremism. Nevada Policy Research Institute Issue Brief, December 11, Available at: Accessed June 4, 200. Glanz J, Revkin AC. A nation challenged; haunting question: Did e ban on asbestos lead to loss of life? NY Times, September 18, 2001, p F2. Available at: September2001/Asbestos.htm. Accessed June 15, 200. CDC. MMWR 2002;51(21): CDC. MMWR 186; 5(4): Available at: mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ htm. Accessed June 4, 200. Camus M, Siemiatycki J, Meek B. Nonoccupational exposure to chrysotile asbestos and e risk of lung cancer. N Engl J Med 18; 8: Beckmann P. Asbestos, technetium, meane, plutonium. Access to Energy 10;17(6):. Spreading out of control. The Economist, September 1, White MJ. Fifteen Annual Corporate Law Symposium: Corporate bankruptcy in e new millennium: why e asbestos genie won t stay in e bankruptcy bottle. U Cin L Rev 2002;70(summer):11. Strope L. Asbestos lawsuits flood courts, New York Sun, June 17, 2002, p 8. Outlandish claims. The Economist, May 2, Asbestos lawyers on e march. Washington Times, Nat l Weekly Ed, June -, 200, p 7. Faulk, RO. Asbestos litigation reatens judicial crisis. Chicago, Ill.: Heartland Institute, May 1, Available at: Article.cfm?artId=1. Accessed June 8, 200. Asbestos Network. Asbestos: e substance at spells disaster. Available at: Accessed June 14, 200. Ortiz v. Fibreboard Corp., 527 U.S. 815, 865 (1) (Rehnquist CJ, concurring). Norfolk & Western Railway Co. v. Ayers, Freeman et al., 12 S. Ct (200). Kranish M. Halliburton merger comes back to haunt Cheney. Arizona Daily Star, June 2, 2002, p A7. Asbestos and radon. Access to Energy 188;15(8):4. Above e impact: a survivor s story. Nova Online. Available at: Accessed June 14, 200. World Trade Center special coverage: cause of twin towers collapse. icivilengineer. Available at: structure.php. Accessed June 14, 200. Federal Emergency Management Agency. World Trade Center Building Performance Study. Available at: library/wtcstudy.shtm. Accessed June 14, 200. U.S. Fires, The World Almanac 200. New York, N.Y.: World Almanac Books; 200:81. Band attorney says singer wants immunity. Associated Press, February 28, 200. Available at: ap _1078.html#. Accessed June 4, 200. State of Rhode Island. Fire Safety Code: General Provisions. Available at: Accessed June 14, 200. DiGiovanni L. Notes: New York City s school asbestos debacle: an administrative approach to e problem of faulty school inspections and a possible new round of asbestos litigation. Fordham Envtl Law J 14:6(fall):7, 2. Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons Volume 8 Number Fall 200

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